INNOVATION

Innovation Management at Tesco Plc

Innovation Management at Tesco Plc

Introduction

Innovation is an essential element for any organization in order to survive, grow and significantly influence the direction of any industry. Development does not; however, guarantee success, but most be followed up with successive streams of innovation and change, from the incremental to the radical. The most reliable way to be successful in the industry is to innovate better and longer than the competitor, leading companies develops innovation portfolios that they can use to help sustain growth over the long term. Innovation and change is an essential part of any business activity, but only some people recognize its importance and significance (Dankbaar, 2003, 44-55). Often, management fails to notice the implication of innovation and change, which becomes the reason of the change failure. Keeping in view the importance of innovation in the organization, this study is going to discuss the innovation management at Tesco Plc.

Overview of Tesco

Tesco, the largest retail chain of UK and third largest chain in the world employing around 440,000 people in 13 markets with around 280,000 in the UK. On an average over 30 million people visit Tesco throughout the world every week. Tesco is one of such organisations that have given tremendous attention to its strategies to cope with all kind of challenges and to gain competitive advantage (Kim 2009, pp. 78-85). Tesco places immense attention to this step of value delivery process, and establishes itself as a brand that is the symbol of reliability.

Tesco plc is a grocery and general consumer goods retailer outlet with global reach. Tesco has its headquarters in UK and it enjoys the status of being the 3rd largest retailer in the world in terms of revenue and 2nd biggest in terms of profits. Tesco has stores in more than 14 countries of the world. Tesco serves as one of the best examples of brand extension as the company which started off as a UK-based grocery store, moved towards expansion into other countries and then extended its brand into other product categories (Freeman & Soete 1997, pp. 87-111). Now Tesco is a popular retailer of clothing, electronics, furniture, books, petrol, internet services, financial services, DVD rentals and music services and mobile phones. By using the strategy of the “The Tesco Way” which depicted the extension into the market by adhering to the company's core values, goals and fundamentals. The Tesco way depicts extending its reach into different product category (Kim 2009, pp. 78-85). The chief part of Tesco's extension into other product categories had been the innovative use of technology. Tesco's brand has greatly extended into the other categories and people immediately relate to it because the brand has a strong credibility and image in the marketplace.

Tesco is considered as the leader in UK retail industry and is highly regarded for its initiative, as it was the first firm in UK that recognized this function and adopted the approach of having a supply chain. This earned it efficient organisational capabilities and gained competitive ...